Prayerful Men Who Changed History
Across church history, extraordinary prayer warriors have altered the eternal destinies of thousands through persistent, passionate intercession before God. Their examples both convict and inspire our own prayer lives today.
The Divine Lifeline
Prayer constitutes a divine lifeline – the conduit God uses to channel spiritual power into the world. Beyond a religious ritual, prayer links mankind with the Almighty Creator, providing a gateway for His power to ignite transformation on the earth (2 Chron. 7:14, James 5:16-18). Through intercession, prayer warriors win invisible battles in the heavens that ultimately change visible outcomes on the earth.
The great preacher E.M. Bounds wrote, "What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use – men of prayer, men mighty in prayer." This truth echoes through history. When handfuls of unknown yet dedicated believers leveraged the power of heaven through prayer, they altered not only their own destinies but also those of thousands surrounding them. Let‘s survey a few of their stories.
Heroes Passionate for God‘s Glory
David Brainerd – Pouring Out a Brief but Influential Life
David Brainerd lived from April 20, 1718 to October 9, 1747, dying at the remarkably young age of 29 from tuberculosis. Yet in his short life, no expense was spared in pouring himself out for ministry through prayer.
As a Yale graduate in 1743, he forfeited his education and endured harsh conditions as a missionary to the Delaware Indians. Rising hours before dawn daily, Brainerd sought God alone in the wilderness before venturing out to preach despite feeble health. Blood often stained his handkerchief as he coughed violently, yet he persisted in interceding for the precious souls he felt called to reach.
Brainerd testified, “I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through…if I could but gain souls to Christ." His diary records, “I wrestled with God in prayer for my poor Indians.” Though branded as overly emotional by some, he prayed and preached with fiery passion flowing from inner communion with God.
Brainerd‘s sacrificial example propagated the modern missionary movement for centuries after his death. His biography inspired William Carey as the “Father of Modern Missions” and also challenged a young Jim Elliot centuries later to eventually die bringing the gospel to Ecuador‘s Auca tribe. Brainerd’s brief but prayer-drenched life watered seeds of missionary sacrifice and revival down to our day.
The Moravian Brothers – Unbroken Prayer Chains Birth Revivals
In 1727, a group of Moravian refugees banded together in Herrnhut, Germany to pray night and day in relay chains. For over a century straight, their prayer furnace burned nonstop as disciples lit candles and interceded hour after hour. Sparks from their fiery worship ignited revivals that shaped Western church history.
Church records indicate that over half the Protestant missionaries sent all over the globe during the 18th and 19th centuries either visited the Moravians or stood on their shoulders. The community sent out hundreds of missionaries, catalyzing awakenings worldwide through their prayer-supported efforts.
The Anglican leader John Wesley directly credited a four-day visit with the Moravians as the catalyst for his famous evangelistic crusades, saying, “I was more convinced than ever that preaching like an apostle without the prayer like an apostle will never set the world on fire.” Wesley learned personally from the Moravians that cultures remained largely unchanged without movements of intensive, kingdom-focused prayer.
Duncan Campbell and the Hebrides Revival
In 1949, Duncan Campbell preached to a packed congregation on the small Scottish Isle of Lewis, one of the Hebrides Islands. As conviction gripped hearts, he simply announced church would continue and sat down. God‘s overpowering presence flooded the gathering, driving many to their knees in prayer and repentance. That night the church clerk returned to lock the doors at 2 AM and found people still crying out to God on their faces, unwilling to leave.
This spiritual deluge resulted directly from months of anguished intercession by two elderly women far from town. Burdened with conviction for revival, Christina and Peggy had covenanted together in prayer until heaven burst open. Duncan Campbell himself later said, “I don‘t think that we can explain the revival apart from this prayer factor." Through his sensitive obedience, God answered these women‘s prayers to drench the Scottish Isle in holy grace.
Bars soon closed for lack of patrons while churches overflowed with thirsty seekers. Stores quickly sold out of Bibles as hundreds came to repentance. The winds of revival further spread to the main island and even internationally as visitors brought the fire home with them. Secular historians record that crime plummeted dramatically while churches swelled on the island for years to come.
E.M. Bounds captured a key lesson from revivals like these, saying: “Men are God‘s method. Prayer is the mighty engine that God has used…that will move things.”
Consumed with God‘s Glory
Leonard Ravenhill – 20th Century Jeremiah of Prayer
"Are the things you‘re living for worth Christ dying for?" Famed British evangelist Leonard Ravenhill relentlessly challenged modern Christianity to embrace costly discipleship through his fiery books and sermons.
Though he personally pastored little, Ravenhill tirelessly evangelized and catalyzed prayer movements by the Spirit’s power. He stirred thousands to revive their first love for Christ through books like Why Revival Tarries, which called readers to reject comfort, convenience and compromise. Known for intentional living and lengthy prayer vigils, he practiced what he preached till going home to his reward in 1994 at age 75.
Remembered as a modern prophet akin to Old Testament Jeremiah, Ravenhill openly lamented the apathy and complacency that plagued much of the modern Western church. In his final sermons, he echoed Jesus in crying out, “Could you not tarry with me one hour? Can you not prayer with me for one hour?” Like previous prayer reformers, he understood that revived hearts must precede cultural revival, continuing the legacy of prayer passed down through the centuries.
John Hyde – Matchstick Arsonist for God
John Hyde sailed for Punjab, India in 1888 after reading radical missionary biographies that ruined him for ordinary living. Soon dubbed “Praying Hyde” by fellow missionaries, he awoke before sunrise for lengthy prayer vigils, pleading for a fresh pentecostal outpouring on India. Sparks from his prayers later ignited revivals across the subcontinent.
Hyde practiced regular fasting to empower his spiritual passion. As he cried out to God, the Lord often answered visibly, even waking him at night to intercede for specific situations. He testified, “Sometimes when I am praying, God will cause me to hear, as distinctly as if it were audible, the voice of the man I am praying for.” His intercession filled in gaps to empower gospel laborers advancing God’s kingdom.
Fervor for the lost dominated his thought and fueled his importunate prayer. He wrote, “Give me these souls or I die!” Then in 1911 while praying, Hyde suffered a stroke at his familiar post. His servant said, “He died praying…It was just eleven o’clock. I could understand that he was going to heaven, and that the people would die.” Even today, over a century later, the lingering aroma of Hyde’s intercession continues to draw Indians to salvation.
George Müller – Faith to Move Mountains
A daring faith and life of prayer characterized George Müller‘s seventy years of ministry. Soon after his conversion from a thief and gambler, he founded orphanages to care for thousands of English children until his death in 1898 at age 92. Rather than directly soliciting donations, he dedicated himself to prayer, determined never to ask anyone but God for daily provision.
Müller testified, “In all my experience I have found that the exercise of faith is the most important thing [we] have to attend to…” He intentionally fed his faith through hours daily in prayer and Scripture reading. As historian Basil Miller observed, “Prayer was the very atmosphere in which this man lived and moved and had his being.”
By life’s end, Müller‘s orphanage housed over 2000 children and distributed 274 million 19th-century dollars in relief without ever posting a need publicly. Even as his vision expanded, he simply prayed in greater faith for enlarged resources. Millions of dollars flowed in miraculously from all corners of the globe in response to his audacious prayers of faith.
This legacy of bold kingdom-focused prayer has inspired similar ministries down through the centuries since. Leaders aiming to tackle society’s woes while depending fully on God consistently point back to Müller as an example of daring faith on display through intensive prayer.
The Transformative Power of Fervent Prayer
Throughout history, ordinary yet devoted believers became conduits through which God poured out transformation worldwide. These prayer champions viewed interceding before God as their highest calling in life – no matter the sacrifice to careers, comforts or reputations. With eternity at stake, they invested themselves entirely in the things unseen, trusting God to direct visible outcomes.
But we must not idolize these spiritual giants. They stand out not by natural talent or ability, but simply through exceptional surrender to welcome heaven‘s power. As common men and women like us, they simply dared to let God stretch them through a lifestyle of faith fueled by prayer.
We too can leverage supernatural resources if we venture beyond shallow Christianity into deeper waters of faith. These courageous prayer warriors stir us to invest relationship with Jesus through lengthy and impassioned prayer vigils. As we yield more of our hearts and lives to God, who knows what divine shocking, shaking and flooding may burn in our midst as well?
Eternal Fruit Ripens Through History
Prayer Legacies Outlive the Intercessors
Prayer warriors may pass quickly off the scene, but spiritual fruit from their labors ripples worldwide for generations. Madame Guyon, Rees Howells and David Brainerd lived less than 70 years combined, yet their prayer legacies continue to bear global harvest centuries later.
By contrast, many celebrated pulpits and personalities fade quickly into irrelevance after their passing. Despite applauding crowds, their names rarely outlive their memorial services. Meanwhile devoted intercessors quietly birth spiritual revolutions without fanfare, dripping silent tears that ultimately reshape nations.
For those with eyes to see, the defining moments of history trace back to the closet of prayer. Culture flows from the hearts of men and women. So as humanity’s passions and pursuits get shaped in the presence of God, the Lord births His purposes through yielded lives. May future generations arise with renewed passion to walk in the footsteps of spiritual ancestors like these.
Raising Up Spiritual Sons and Daughters
The Hidden Impact of Intercession
None can measure the true impact of a life hidden away with God. As churches enumerate metrics of attendees, members and dollars, heaven tallies souls saved and spiritual births centuries later.
Rees Howells ran a Bible college to train missionaries and evangelists prayed for daily by the students. They understood spiritual warfare and strategic intercession lay the foundations for public ministry. Graduates who planted churches across continents acknowledged prayer support from Howells‘ students sustained them against fierce demonic opposition.
Meanwhile, George Müller’s daring faith provided for thousands orphaned and impoverished in Victorian England. His testimony of crying out to God alone for practical provision has since emboldened multitudes of other ministries. Over a century later, his example shores up many urban missionaries combating modern slavery and exploitation amid poverty today.
When the great cloud of witnesses in heaven convenes before Christ’s throne, the Lord Himself will reveal untold billions impacted by these prayer saint’s cries. Their obscure names may not fill history books today, yet their spiritual heritage flows strongly down through the centuries. May we stand faithfully in their hallowed lineages.
The Batons Get Passed Once More
The Never-Ending Legacy of Revival
Prayer warrior Duncan Campbell testified personally to the lasting impacts flowing from God’s outpouring on the Hebrides islands in 1949. He shared:
“I was preaching in Indianapolis one night and who should walk up to me but a minister? He said, ‘Mr. Campbell, I feel I owe you an explanation. I was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis. When the revival came, I was 15 years of age. My brother was converted, and I was bitter against him. I refused to go to the meetings, but I couldn‘t get away from the awareness of God.”
He continued: “One night I was going along the road looking for my brother and I saw him on his knees behind a peat stack, crying to God to have mercy on me. And God saved me there! I didn’t have any option.”
But the minister further explained why he felt such a debt: “I was converted in the revival. I am now minister in Indianapolis, one of the largest churches in the city. And there is something else: sixty of my congregation here trace their conversion to the Isle of Lewis!”
Even today, the winds of revival and awakening sparked by prayer decades ago continue to spread from those obscure Hebridean islands worldwide. Only in heaven’s hindsight will the full extent of revival’s ripple effects reveal how God answered the desperate prayers of those faithful few.
May their examples ignite fresh fire in us to storm the secret place once more.
Answering the Call to Prayer
Truly the earnest prayer of a righteous man unleashes tremendous power. As ordinary believers leverage divine authority in persistent asking, seeking and knocking, heaven stands ready to turn the tide of history once more. These spiritual ancestors echo the call of Christ, beckoning us to higher planes of faith and greater sacrifices of love.
Something profound mystically transfers at the passing of the batons to each generation. As we kneel to honor saints gone before while reaching forward to run our own race, Jesus Himself lines up by our side afresh. Then ultimately transcending time, He who “ever lives to make intercession for us” (Heb 7:25) steps into the stream at each bend to intervene again.
The Savior who knows no limits to love still cries through the ages, “Could you not tarry with me one hour?” May a resounding YES arise from our hearts – the first word to shape many more yeasts of revival to come. Again let it start with an unbroken circle of prayer set ablaze.
Come quickly again, Lord Jesus!